Tissue Culture Technique for Multiping Jatropha Production

Most of the jatropha plantations in India today use seed-generated plants, where it’s difficult to maintain the genetic quality of seeds in subsequent generations.
“By using tissue culture technique, it’s possible to mass multiply superior planting material from a source, irrespective of season, climate or volume,” said Geetaa Singh, executive director of Labland.

Read more info here

Labels: Jatropha-Cultivation

posted by Sudha @ 10:29 PM 0 Comments

Jatropha Plantations are doing well in India

Jatropha Plantations are doing well in India due to 4 reasons:

1. India is densely populated country and the Fallow land holding per farmer is 1 to 10 acres. A family of farmer can take care of this size of land very easily, as far as plantation, harvesting as well as security is concerned. The infrastructure of Roads, Housing, Market is already there in Farmer's village. This infrastructure substantially reduces cost, as compared to plantations on barren, vast, unhabited lands.

2. Most of the farming in India is Organic by default. Cow dung is used as manure for Jatropha, and it is the cow dung which has done all the difference in low mortality of saplings, good yield, less pests etc. (In India there are 1 cattle for every 5 persons, 200 million cattle for 1 billion persons)

3. In India, the day to day expenses are quite low and a daily per capita income of US$ 2, in rural areas, is good enough for survival. This makes indian farmer, far more competitive as compared to farmers in developed world.

4. The prices of Petroleum Products in India, are around US$ 1 per liter. If it is less than this, there is no incentive to farmers to grow Jatropha.

Read more info here

Labels: Jatropha-Cultivation

posted by Sudha @ 1:12 AM 0 Comments

Jatropha as a Plantation Crop Advantages

• Easy to establish, grows quickly, hardy and require little care.
• It can grow in poor soils, in wastelands except flood prone and waterlogged areas. Reclamation of wasteland and degraded land is possible through its plantation. In fertile land it gives higher yields
• Plantation of Jatropha, oil extraction and nursery raising, can be rural based, hence promoter of rural economy besides ensuring energy security.
• It is suitable for preventing soil erosion including Jhum fallows.
• Jatropha is not a competitor of any crop rather it increases the yield.
• Due to mycorrhizal value in Jatropha roots it helps in getting phosphate from soil boon for acid soil.
• Improves the soil fertility throughout their life cycle.
• Possesses medicinal as well as other multiple uses.
• Generate net income for 30-35 years @ approx. Rs. 10,000 / ac/year from 4th year.
• Providing local jobs, lessening the need for local villagers to migrate to cities to find employment.

Read more info(PDF) here

Labels: Jatropha-Cultivation

posted by Sudha @ 9:13 PM 0 Comments

Present Jatropha Activities in India

In Erode the NGO CDRC is promoting integrated farming and sustainable development since
several years. A medical doctor is founder and head of this NGO, sometimes working as well
as a veterinary doctor. He is using herbal medicines and promoting natural means of
agricultural production, thus integrating agro-forestry, on-farm energy production and use of
herbs for medicinal and nutritional purposes to support healthy and sustainable living
conditions in rural areas. There is an impressive record of accomplishment on past
development and promotional activities on sustainable agriculture, including commercial
production of biodegradable food plates from banana leaves through local women.
One CDRC member is head of a nursery mainly for fruit and oil trees and ornamental plants.
Since about two years, the nursery is focussing Jatropha in cooperation with Coinbatore
Agricultural University, who is getting Government support for this purpose in preparation of
the planned program and has since produced up to 500.000 plants (ca. 200 ha) from seeds and
cuttings. Seedling production takes 60 days and cutting production 45 days, before being
given to the farmers. There is no preference for none of the methods yet. 50 thousand
seedlings went to Government bodies so far, about 40.000 to Indian Railways and roughly
400.000 to private owners (small and medium farmers).

Read more info(PDF) here

Labels: Jatropha-Cultivation

posted by Sudha @ 7:52 PM 0 Comments

Wasteland for Jatropha

Read more info here

Labels: Jatropha-Cultivation

posted by Sudha @ 11:00 PM 0 Comments

Madhya Pradesh Proposes Jatropha Cultivation

GWALIOR: Move over dacoits and bandits. The rugged Chambal Valley in Madhya Pradesh is being seen as a future energy

hub. If the Madhya Pradesh government’s plan to lease out wasteland to corporate India for cultivation of jatropha gets a positive response, Chambal is all set to turn into an alternative energy hotspot.

With the Madhya Pradesh government getting its act together to weed out criminals in the area and killing over 50 dacoits, including dreaded gangster Jagjivan Parihar in the last one year, many private companies have now shown an interest in the cultivation of jatropha, a bio-diesel plant, in the Chambal Valley.

On the dacoit menace in the area, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan stressed that Chambal would no longer be known for bandits and criminal activities. “Most of the infamous dacoits of the area have been eliminated. It’s time to convert Chambal into a future energy hub.

Read more info here

Labels: Jatropha-Cultivation

posted by Sudha @ 10:47 PM 0 Comments

Jatropha Cultivation - a Diagramatical Representation

Labels: Jatropha-Cultivation

posted by Sudha @ 6:11 AM 0 Comments

Jatropha Farming

Jatropha is a drought resistant perennial shrub or small tree that has an economic life of up to 35 years and can live for 50 years. It grows fast, with little or no need for maintenance and can reach a height of 3 to 8 meters.

It has a smooth gray bark which exudes whitish color, watery, latex when cut. The size of the leaves ranges from 6-16 cm. in length and width. The leaves are green to pale, alternate to sub-opposite with 3 to 5 lobes. It sheds leaves in the dry season and rejuvenates during rainy season.

Flowers are formed terminally, individually, with female flowers usually slightly larger. It is pollinated by insects, especially honey bees. Two flowering peaks are often observed and occur during the wet season. Each inflorescence yields fruits.

After the seeds mature, 3 bi-valved cocci are formed. The seeds become mature when the capsule changes from green to yellow about three months after flowering.

It grows on well-drained soils with good aeration and is well adapted to marginal soils with low nutrient content. On heavy soils, root formation is reduced. Jatropha is a highly adaptable species, but its strength as a crop comes from its ability to grow on very poor and dry sites.

Read more info here

Labels: Jatropha-Cultivation

posted by Sudha @ 1:50 AM 0 Comments

Jatropha Cultivation in Mali & India

One of the best examples of a sustainable usage of Jatropha is found in the West African country of Mali. The Jatropha program in Mali began in 1993 with German Technical Assistance. The program not only aimed to use Jatropha oil as a fuel but also use Jatropha cultivation as a springboard for energizing rural economies. The small village of Simiji has recently been transformed by Jatropha production. By crushing the seeds of the Jatropha plant and extracting the oil, village residents have found a renewable power source that does not conflict with the local food supply. Oil from the Jatropha plant, long considered useless, now powers a small generator. Simiji now has enough power to run 40 streetlights and give 60 families power at night. The usage of Jatropha in Simiji is not an isolated case of success in Mali. It is one of 700 communities that have installed a generator; which can run on plant oil, part of a larger state run project to electrify the country’s 12000 villages through a renewable energy source that does not harm the local food supply. Aboubacar Samake, head of the Jatropha program at the government funded National Center for Solar and Renewable energy, noted that a number of foreign companies had shown an interest in developing a Jatropha industry in Mali. Encouragingly for the local villages, Samake said that the foreign companies had been told that no agro-fuels would be exported until Mali’s domestic needs were met.

Another country that is also investing heavily in Jatropha production is India. Similar to Mali, the Indian Jatropha grows in the wild, does not require large-scale irrigation projects and can be harvested within two years of planting. In contrast to Mali, India’s investment in Jatropha follows a more conventional path of development in alternative energy resources. While the Jatropha plant in India is the same as the one in Mali, the goals of the Jatropha program in India are somewhat different. In Mali, the Jatropha plant was used to develop a renewable power supply for each individual village, however, in India, Jatropha planting is primarily aimed at reducing oil imports and achieving energy independence. Jatropha cultivation in India also received a strong boost after the President of India Abdul Kalam announced he was a supporter of the project.

Read more info here

Labels: Jatropha-Cultivation

posted by Sudha @ 1:40 AM 0 Comments

Jatropha-Bio Energy Plantation

Labels: Jatropha-Cultivation

posted by Sudha @ 1:15 AM 0 Comments

Jatropha Plantation in India

Non-Forest Areas proposed for Jatropha Plantation

200 districts in 19 potential states have been identified on the basis of availability of wasteland, rural poverty ratio, below poverty line (BPL) census and agro-climatic conditions suitable for jatropha cultivation.Each district will be treated as a block and under each block 15000 ha jatropha plantation will be undertaken through farmers (BPL). Proposed to provide green coverage to about 3 Million ha of wasteland through plantation of jatropha in 200 identified districts over a period of 3 years.

Andhra Pradesh , Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra
Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu

Read more info here

Labels: Jatropha-Cultivation

posted by Sudha @ 11:32 PM 0 Comments

Jatropha Cultivation Technology

The key factors that can influence the oil yield of Jatropha Curcas are:

1. Climate
2. Quality of the soil
3. Irrigation
4. Weeding
5. Use of fertilizer
6. Crop density
7. Genotype
8. Use of pesticide
9. Inter-cropping

Read more info here

Labels: Jatropha-Cultivation

posted by Sudha @ 10:20 PM 0 Comments

Jatropha cultivation for Biodiesel

The country has nearly 63 million hectares of wasteland, out of which 33 million hectares have been allotted for tree plantation. Certain multi-purpose trees such as Jatropha can grow well in wasteland with very little water. Once grown, the crop has fifty years of life. Fruiting can take place in this plant in two years. It yields up to five tonnes per hectare oil seeds and produces two tonnes of bio-diesel. Presently, the cost of bio-diesel through the plant is approximately Rs. 17 to Rs. 19 per litre, which can be substantially reduced through choice of right size of the plant and using high yield variety plantation that has already been established by the researchers. Bio-diesel plants grown in 11 million hectares of land can yield a revenue of approximately Rs. 20,000 crore a year and provide employment to over 12 million people both for plantation and running of the extraction plants.

Low Risk Venture

A quick estimate of land requirements to meet the fuel needs of a 500 MW combined cycle power plant is 2,70,000 hectares, which is significantly large. The yield of bio-diesel is 1.62 tonnes/hectare. The bio-diesel requirement for a 500 MW (CCGT plant) is approximately 4,40,000 tonnes per annum operating at 70 per cent plant load factor.

The bio-diesel cost is estimated to be around Rs. 20 per litre, which accounts for all the costs associated with plantation and seed collection, oil extraction, trans-esterification and transportation. The risks associated with Jatropha derived bio-fuel appears to be low as these can grow on degraded lands.

Read more here

Labels: Jatropha-Cultivation

posted by Sudha @ 1:03 AM 0 Comments

India Turns Wasteland into Jatropha Cultivation

A home-grown Indian firm is embarking on an aggressive drive to use wastelands across the country to produce biofuels.

IKF Green Fuel plans to invest more than Rs 400 crore to take up Jatropha plantation and processing, including over Rs 100 crore in the farmer suicide capital of the country , Vidarbha and Marathwada.

Read more info here

Labels: Jatropha-Cultivation

posted by Sudha @ 12:55 AM 0 Comments

India's Plan to Increase Jatropha Cultivation

Vitale Nandan Biopharma Sciences Pvt Ltd, a joint venture company floated by Hyderabad-based Nandan Biometrix Ltd and Ahmedabad-based V Worldwide, has been allotted 5,000 acres of wasteland in Patan and Surendranagar districts for the cultivation of jatropha to produce bio-diesel.

The company, which is embarking on a large-scale jatropha cultivation over 8 lakh hectares in Maharashtra, MP, UP, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa and Jharkhand, is planning to increase its jatropha cultivation to nearly one lakh acres in Gujarat over the next few years.

Of the 133 million hectares of total wasteland in the country, five lakh hectares are in Gujarat and can be used for jatropha cultivation. Read

Labels: Jatropha-Cultivation

posted by Sudha @ 10:34 PM 0 Comments